Found: The Mythical Google 404 Page!!1

from the check-this-out dept

We'd already mentioned the fact that Google abruptly turned off its realtime search, after its agreement with Twitter expired. But apparently the whole thing was so abrupt that it even caught Google by surprise. After all, the company still lists Realtime Search in its product listing page (right at the top of "specialized search" no less):

But, even more amusing is that if you click on it, you don't get a redirect. You don't get an explanation. You flat out get a 404 not found page, something I don't recall ever seeing at Google before:

Now, there are a few different interesting things about this. While you can actually find a Google 404 page just by typing nonsense after the slash (though, oddly, some nonsense returns you to the main Google home page, and some leads you to the 404), this is the first time I've run into it while just clicking a regular link on Google. It's a bit amusing that the title is: "Error 404 (Not Found)!!1." I'm not sure if that's a joke or a typo.

But what struck me as even more strange is just the fact that a site like Google would have a blank 404 page like this at all. You would think that the search giant would, at the very least, suggest alternative results or try to point you to something useful. Hell, it doesn't even have a link back to the home page, let alone a redirect.

Re: Re:

Mike, it's been a standard for quite some time to have a site's logo be a hyperlink map with their homepage as the target. I understand that, by virtue of my education and aptitude for learning, my view of the average person is skewed above the 100-IQ mark. However, I still can't imagine the majority--even a large minority--of users would not see the cursor change when hovering over the logo especially since it is brightly colored and draws the attention of the human eye.

Don't get me wrong, I admire your writings and look forward to more of your opinion(ated) articles.

Re: Re: Wow, Mike, you keep us on the cutting edge.

I usually really enjoy your insightful articles, but you seem to be getting overly defensive about this. This post clearly isn't as serious as most of the content on the site. Can't you respond to a little negative feedback without coming on so strong?